What's happening in the Mississippi Supreme Court and Court of Appeals

Menu

Mikal Watts trial happening

The Mikal Watts trial commenced in July. He’s the Texas plaintiff’s lawyer indicted along with six others (including Watts’ brother) for fraud in connection with the BP oil spill class action. In essence, he’s charged with lying about the claimants he had signed up as a way to get on the plaintiff’s steering committee. Some of the plaintiffs were dead; another was a dog named Lucy Lu. One of his codefendants, Gregory Warren, pleaded guilty in 2005 in connection with similar wrongdoing with fen-phen plaintiffs in the same case that sent attorney Robert Arledge to prison (Arledge’s arrest prompted one wild forfeiture pleading; Arledge collected stuffed African wildlife, all kinds of guns, and expensive large-sized suits).

The trial kicked off July 20, 2016, in federal court in Gulfport. Watts started out by hiring Rob McDuff (always a smart move). He’s now representing himself.

From the Louisiana Record (story linked below):

David Watts smelled fraud in 41,000 oil spill claims that brother Mikal Watts filed against BP, and so did BP’s claims director and Louisiana attorney regulators, but Mikal Watts turned those claims into $2.3 billion.

He might not have worked so hard to preserve the illusion of representation if he had known it would result in indictments for him, brother David, and five others.